CHAPTER II

THE DASH OF THE WHIRLWIND


When Jack Kimball called at the Robinson home that same evening, at
precisely nine-thirty, he found three very much agitated young
ladies. Bess, or, to be more exact, Elizabeth Robinson, the
brown-haired, "plump" girl--she who was known as the "big" Robinson
girl--was positively out of breath, while her twin sister, Isabel,
usually called Belle, too slim to puff and too thin to "fluster,"
was fanning herself with a very dainty lace handkerchief.

Cora paced up and down the piazza, in the true athletic way of
cooling off.

"Why the wherefore?" asked Jack, surprised at the excitement so
plainly shown, in spite of the girls' attempts to hide it.

"Oh, just a race," replied Cora indifferently.

"Out in the dark?" 'persisted Jack.

"Only across the hill," went on Cora, while Bess giggled
threateningly.

"Seems to me you took a queer time to race," remarked the lad with a
sly wink at Isabel. "Who won out?"